Providers with Minneapolis-based Minnesota Neonatal Physicians plan to leave Children's Minnesota, also in Minneapolis, by the end of the year, according to the Star Tribune.
The approximately 13-member physician group will instead provide services at the neonatal intensive care units at Maple Grove (Minn.) Hospital and Robbinsdale, Minn.-based North Memorial Health Hospital. An executive with the group told the publication the move will be costly, as physicians will ultimately lose income from the switch and may not be able to perform the broad range of services they are able to perform at Children's Minnesota.
Physicians with Minnesota Neonatal Physicians told the Star Tribune hospital officials were asking them to cede too much control over how they practice and aimed to transition the group from private practitioners to hospital employees.
Instead, Children's reached an employment agreement with physicians from St. Paul, Minn.-based Associates in Newborn Medicine.
Marc Gorelick, MD, president and COO of Children's Minnesota, told the publication the NICU generates a substantial portion of the hospital's revenue and necessitated the physician group's transition from private providers to hospital staff members. Other hospital physicians, however, can remain in private practice.
Both organizations are reportedly still open to having Minnesota Neonatal Physicians return to the hospital on a limited basis.
The physician group also filed a lawsuit against the hospital earlier this year, claiming one of the hospital's board members called the physician group "crooks" and accused them of accepting kickbacks for sending patients to specialists, according to the report.
To access the full report, click here.